NADRA cancels CNICs verification right of MNAs, senators

NADRA has recently halted the policy that gives the facility to National Assembly members and senators, of verifying the suspicious NICs of the citizens, told highly placed sources in NADRA.

NADRA few weeks ago formulated this policy of giving the authority to the MNAs and senators that if a NIC of a person gets blocked due to suspicion and if senator or MNA of his constituency verifies him then his NIC will be unblocked, told sources.

According to the sources, the facility has recently been blocked on the pressure of Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) after MNA from NA-1 Ghulam Ahmed Bilour of Awami National Party (ANP), provided a list to NADRA. The list contained many people that were quite objectionable for the Law Enforcement Authorities, which prominently included various Afghan refugees.

When contacted, Ghulam Bilour confirmed the news regarding this facility, however, he said that ‘negotiations on this matter were under process and government has formed a panel to address the issue that includes NA deputy speaker’.

He also criticized the process of scrutiny by the government and said, ‘Our forefathers have all come from Afghanistan in the past and if government is not registering the Afghan refugees as citizens of Pakistan then all of us should also be disowned in the same way’.

Per contra to this, Ministry of Interior Media director totally denied the news and said that “no such policy existed”.

This particular act of Bilour although became the central reason but a strong debate within the authorities on this particular issue has been going on for quite a while. Some say that just because of a small number of dubious people we should not let the majority to suffer. Whereas the others believe that such a policy would become dangerous for our national security.

This policy was developed when few months ago JUI Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman criticized Minister of Interior Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan on the matter of suspicious NICs. Maulana Fazl claimed that how could anyone be more aware about the people then the representatives of their constituencies.